Land dispute stalls Indonesia’s Sorong Port development

Construction of Sorong Port in West Papua, Indonesia, initially planned to start at the end of this year, is likely to proceed next year yet because of resistance from indigenous people who are claiming ownership of the land the port will occupy, the Jakarta Post reported.

State-owned port operator Indonesia Port Corporation (IPC) said that the Sorong Port project was supposed to start in the last quarter of this year, but that they could not proceed as scheduled because the local landowners refused to leave.

IPC said it has been engaging the land claimants in a series of dialogues to explain that the proposed port is part of a government plan to boost the national economy and link the eastern part of the country to other parts of Indonesia.

The port is expected to become operational in 2014. Once completed, the US$104 million port project will have an annual capacity of 500,000 containers of 20-foot-equivalent units and help reduce logistics costs in east Indonesia by half.